Home blending

Been comparing some 100 proofers lately- BIB and otherwise. Tried the Old Forester Signature and to me it is like pecan pie in a bottle with a couple heaps of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon: a decadent dessert bourbon when you're in the mood for that but a little bit much even for my sweet tooth. On the other hand I've got the WT101 with just a touch of sweetness and its famous spice and heat. Anyhow, it turns out they compliment each other pretty well blended with a splash of water. I've tried this sort of thing before without much success with other whiskeys. It seems you never know what's going to work until you go ahead and mix them. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and sometimes less. It got me wondering what other folks on this site may have tried blending of late, and what worked well and not so well...Has anyone had some interesting "home blending" results?

Re: Home blending

Re: Home blending

I prefer my SB Blend at a 60/40 ratio, heavy on the OWA over Weller 12. I've tried subbing Larceny in for the W12, and while drinkable not nearly as nice. I'm experimenting with some mingles of OGD 114 and Ritt BIB (different ratios to find what I like). Other than the SB Blend, I typically don't vat a large quantity of others - but I have fun trying different things (and as long as you're having fun, you're doing it right!)

Gary (aka 'Country')=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough." - Mark Twain
"Because Whiskey Matters!" - David Perkins

Re: Home blending

I recently did 50:50 WT101 w/ WTRRSmBSB (its starting to get tiring typing that out, but it is one of my all-time favorite SB acronyms) and a few drops of water - good/different. The RR rounded off some of the edges in the 101, and the WT101 seemed to add more depth and complexity, which quite frankly confused me. I suspect I'll drink at least half of the RR in this manner.

Re: Home blending

One of my two favorite 'vattings' is my own creation of 'standard shelf 4-roses SB' and '12 edition of the OFBB, blended in a 50-50 ratio. I also like my SB blend at 60-40 as Gary noted a couple posts back. Those are my two favs.
Your creation sounds like a well-thought-out and interesting one. I'll have to try it. I bet it IS pretty darn good.
... And, as Gary said; "If your having fun, you're doing it right!"

Re: Home blending

This is a blend that I have been playing with for the past couple months, OWA 107 50% Weller 12 40% and Stagg jr 10%, optional bittercube brand Cherry Bark Vanilla bitters (4 drops per 750ml) This blend is very good, spicy on the sip, smooth on the back end. Be careful, too much Stagg jr pushes it over to bitter, just need a little bit. Working on another blend without stagg jr and subbing in ETL 5% and BMH NAS 5% will be ready in a week and will report back

Re: Home blending

I'm fairly new to blending, have tried the SB blend and like it, and have also put together a 50/50 Bulleit Frontier/Weller SR that gets a thumbs up from me, better than the sum of its parts. How long do you folks think a blend needs to sit before it's reached an optimal state for drinking? I just tried a 2/1 Stagg Jr./ER10, just for chuckles. It's been sitting for about a week now, figured I'd have to give it at least 2 weeks to properly meld, but that's just a guess.